Due to the popularity of the sport of golf, it is a recognized predicament whereby there are more golfers than suitable or preferred available tee times. It is common procedure at golf courses nationally and internationally that tee time reservations for a given day are allotted on a first-come first-serve basis, on a particular day and at a particular time in advance of the required reservation day. This scenario inevitably results in severe congestion at the point of reservation at the predetermined time.
Historically, tee time reservations are allotted to individuals present at the golf course, through a lottery system whereby individuals have registered in the lottery with the drawing being made at a predetermined time, by telephone call to the golf course, or a combination of each of the above, in each case the most commonly accepted and convenient method being by telephone. Subsequently, severe congestion on the telephone lines results with a bottleneck situation created through one person answering the telephone, one line at a time.
In recent years, technology has assisted in alleviating the congestion through the use of automated scheduling systems. These are effectively "smart" computer systems capable of answering multiple telephone lines and processing tee time reservation requests simultaneously, the net result being the amount of time for an individual to get through to the golf course to reserve a tee time being considerably reduced.
Practically all golf courses endure this same problem. Practically all golfers are subjected to the same frustration of experiencing busy signals when calling the course. These automated scheduling systems are gradually gaining acceptance within the golfing community. Several technology enhancements in the telephone industry have assisted in making the calls to the course easier, typically, "Automatic Call Back" and telephone number identification. Regardless, in each case, the caller must be physically at the telephone in order to process the tee time request. The "Teephone" advantage is simply that the tee time request is "unattended". The user does not physically have to be at a telephone in order to make the tee time request.